Rio Tinto Diamond Production 3.6M Carat in Q2

Underground mining at Diavik

Rio Tinto mined 3.61 million carats of diamonds in its second quarter, growing 182 percent year-over-year and 3 percent compared to the first quarter of the year, the company said Wednesday.

In its quarterly operations review, Rio Tinto reported that Argyle supplied most of the company’s diamond production by volume, 2.61 million carats, surging 538 percent compared to the second quarter of 2009, and increasing 3 percent from the first quarter of 2010.

The company said production at Argyle returned to normal levels following the maintenance shut down at the processing facilities in the second quarter of 2009.

Production at Diavik increased 13 percent year-over-year, brining Rio Tinto’s 60 percent share of production to 967,000 carats. Diavik’s total production was therefore 1.61 million carats in the quarter.

Ore processing at Diavik increased by 37 percent compared with the same quarter of 2009 but more ore was sourced from the lower grade A418 pit resulting in the 13 percent increase in carat production.

The Murowa diamond mine in Zimbabwe produced 48,700 carats; 38,000 carats are the miner’s 78 percent share of production.

In the first half of fiscal 2010, Rio Tinto’s production increased 5 percent to 7.12 million carats.

Argyle’s production yield stood at 1.3 carats per tonnes (CPT), 3.1 CPT at Diavik and just 0.45 CPT at Murowa.

Rio Tinto also reported diamond exploration activities in India, Canada and the Democratic Republic of Congo.